Ghost
by Artemis Rae
Summary: Sokka could never tell her no, even when he had every right to. They would have had a family eventually, anyway. Toph x Sokka. One Shot.


Ghost

Rating: K+

Summary: Sokka could never tell her no, even when he had every right to. They would have had a family eventually anyway.

A/N: So I wrote this tonight in one sitting. The idea came to me in the shower, I got out of the shower, dried my hair, and wrote this. JoJoDancer read through it and there we go. Never mind I still have 10 chapters of Shadows to write and two one shots waiting to be beta'd. This is a short one shot – only about 700 some words, so I guess it's not that big a deal.

But yeah. Warning for the random crack!pairing.

* * *

"So you two will be married by the beginning of summer." Lao Bei Fong's jaw was set, his face solemn. Sokka kept his shoulders straight and his eyes trained on Toph's father; respectful but not cowering. Next to him, Toph was hunched over, her feet curled up under the chair as if she was trying to detach herself from the situation as much as possible. 

"Yes sir."

Next to him, Toph nodded.

"Good." Lao paused for a moment and then added, "I have nothing else to say to you two."

They rose, bowed, and exited the room. Out in the hall, Toph exhaled sharply, as if she'd finally let out a breath she'd been holding.

"That… went a lot better then I expected," she said quietly.

Sokka was silent. He was understandably overwhelmed after experiencing a whirlwind month since Toph had come to him, near hysterical and asking his help.

He didn't have much of a problem marrying Toph. He loved her and had always figured she'd be the one he settled down with sooner or later. Sure, they'd had issues with commitment – he'd been hurt badly in the past and she enjoyed revolting against the standards of noble ladies. "Why should guys have all the fun?" she'd asked, and Sokka'd had no answer and really no problem as long as he was one of the ones who got to have fun with her.

He _did_ have a problem with raising a child that wasn't his. That was something he still struggled with daily, but when he looked at Toph he found he just couldn't refuse her – he would have had a family with her eventually anyway, right? When he'd tried to suggest options that wouldn't force her into marriage – claiming the Fire Lord was the father, for example – she'd just shook her head and insisted, "It has to be you. It has to be _you_."

So Sokka sighed and gritted his teeth and agreed – because he loved her – and endured Katara's dirty looks and Zuko's snide comments and the Bei Fong's rage.

It wasn't like he didn't have fair warning. "They're going to hate you," Toph said. "And they're going to want us to get married." She had cried. _Cried_. He was _so bad_ with crying girls.

They walked down the hall to the dining room, her shoulders still hunched over, as if she were going to hide the bump that was just barely beginning to show through her draping robes, and he glancing at her warily, as if she were going to start crying again at any moment.

Her parents had enjoyed lunch before he and Toph had told them the news, so the table was set for the two of them alone. Sokka noted that now they Toph's parents had no problem leaving them alone together, because they were officially betrothed, and after all, wasn't the damage done already?

Toph picked at her food and Sokka resisted the urge to nag at her – what was that obnoxious phrase Katara always used? She was eating for two, and she needed to remember that. The silence between them was awkward, and Sokka reflected on how the months ahead of him were going to drag.

By the end of summer, he would be a father.

And to think, he used to have an entirely different reason to fear the end of summer.

_The end of summer_… Counting back the months in his mind and reaching a startling conclusion, he blurted out the first question to hit him. "Where _were_ you anyway?" She stiffened, and he continued, stiltedly, "I mean... when… you know."

A blush started to crawl across her face. "Winter solstice."

"So it _was_ at the North Pole," Sokka said, quashing down his feeling of triumph at figuring it out once he remembered what they were talking about. He thought for a moment, filtering through memories of the week they spent of there. "…Are you _sure_ it's not me?"

She nodded her head.

"Do you know who?"

Another nod.

Sokka blinked. "Do I have to ask the next question?"

She bit her lip. "Look, it was late, we were drunk, and…" she trailed off, mumbling.

"What did you say?"

"I was wearing shoes. I _thought_ he was you. At first."

"Who?" Her words ran through his mind: _It has to be you, it has to be you._

Her fingers wrapped around a piece from her bangs, twisting the hair tightly around her knuckles – a sure sign of her nervousness. "His name was Hahn."

Sokka's knife clattered to his plate.

* * *

I know. I _know_! Seriously. I know. I was saying WTF when I was writing it, but the thought amused me (even if it came out to be a more angsty fic), and JoJoDancer enjoyed the fic and urged me to post it so… here you go. It has been a psychotic week here at school with midterms, so I'm glad I was able to sit down and write a little something.. 

Er… I didn't mean for it to come across as Toph being (as Ron Weasley would say) a scarlet woman. I kinda pictured her and Sokka having an open relationship to begin with, though there were certainly extenuating circumstances here…

I don't know if anyone will be wondering this, but if you do: the reason I didn't post this under the Escapades is because this doesn't fit in with the theme of my Escapades, which are supposed to be more.. crazy adventures. The happier times for Sokka and Toph, if you will. Both me and JoJoDancer agreed that it didn't fit so.. it gets its own post.

As for my other projects: Chapter 6 of Shadows will be up as soon as I sit down and finish Chapter 8 (I'm about a quarter through now and slogging through a tough section. The other sections won't be as bad), and I have two one shots – one Kataang fluffy piece and one… weird Ba Sing Se piece that I want to get up first. And another Escapade floating around here somewhere… Gah.

Hope you guys liked it!


End file.
